Rent vs Buy: What the Numbers Show In Your City

With housing prices now down to 2002 levels throughout most of the country, many people who previously shied away from real estate are now thinking of locking in a deal. Not so fast! While affordability has certainly improved in many areas, prices in others remain high when compared to pre-bubble long-term averages. To visualize home affordability throughout the country, we compare price-to-rent ratios in various metro areas to where they were at the peak of the bubble (2006), as well as their long-term pre-bubble average (1989 to 2003).

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